This thesis examines the relationship between architecture and domestic violence, arguing that traditional ideas of home and privacy can obscure experiences of abuse. It proposes a memorial in Toronto that combines remembrance, advocacy, and community support, using architectural thresholds to promote awareness, healing, and survivor empowerment.

This research explores why former human traffickers in Indonesia stopped offending. Through interviews with ten ex-traffickers, the study found that marriage and parenthood often triggered moral transformation by creating empathy and shame. The findings suggest trafficking prevention should focus not only on punishment, but also on strengthening families and social bonds.

This dissertation reinterprets the French Revolution through the lens of care ethics, analysing the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and Sophie de Grouchy. The research argues that these thinkers anticipated modern theories of care, interdependence, and gender equality, offering early proto-feminist visions of social institutions grounded in community and mutual responsibility.

This research investigates whether increasing female political representation affects labour market participation and education outcomes. Using electoral reforms in Italy as a natural experiment, the study finds that greater female representation increased workforce participation among working-age women while encouraging younger women to remain in education, demonstrating broader economic and social effects of political representation.

This research reinterprets unionization at Carleton University in the 1970s, showing it was driven not only by economic pressures but by feminist activism. Women leaders used unions to challenge inequality, improve working conditions, and advance social justice, reshaping assumptions about labor movements in professional, white-collar environments.

This research examines resistance to trans inclusion in sports by testing assumptions about fairness. A survey experiment shows that people with negative attitudes become more supportive when fairness concerns are explicitly addressed in low-threat sports. The findings suggest opposition is not uniform and that challenging underlying assumptions can meaningfully increase support for inclusion.

This talk examines how nineteenth-century British novels portray domestic violence as a necessary tool for women to escape the restrictive inside–outside gender model. Using Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre, it shows how violent acts disrupt patriarchal structures, granting women agency, identity, and a path toward equality.

My research examines how modern fiction eroticises Jack the Ripper, transforming a historical murderer into a sexual fantasy figure. By tracing this trend from 19th-century sensational reporting to today’s “Fifty Shades”–influenced culture, the study explores how sexuality, empowerment, violence, and fantasy intersect — and questions where society draws the line.

This research explores the hidden lives of Mills & Boon’s mid-20th-century women authors using 70,000 archival letters. Despite selling millions of books, they faced stigma, wrote under pseudonyms, and often apologised for their work. The project reveals their cultural impact and repositions them as historically significant contributors to post-war society.